Suburban School Inequality

September 30, 2010

For the past few years, I have been diligently working on issues of inequality in well-resourced school settings. My book is coming along nicely, but I thought I’d share some of my insights with the public, well the non-academic public. As the nation turns its attention towards education, we cannot think that suburban spaces are more equal. While many of our families move to these cities for their reputation and resources, we are often locked out of these amenities. Check out my piece on theGrio.com about this.

The achievement gap. These three words have launched a million initiatives, all with the goal of closing the average differences in test scores between black and white students. While more and more people are getting in on education reform and more attention is being placed on it due to films like Waiting for Superman, we cannot make the mistake of thinking that black students who are not in the inner-city are safe from inequality. In fact, the gap in test scores between black and white youth in the suburbs is only slightly smaller than the urban and national gaps that we observe. As we turn out attention towards reforming education, we must think about inequality in the promised lands of suburbs.

From my Facebook post: I like this piece highlighting your research on segregated suburbia (copyrightin’ that right now:) ) and its impacts on educational access. No one understands the pervasiveness of the challenges that our friends who have endured years of de…bt and drama in graduate school to become professionals, (especially those who are in higher education) who also have to deal with inequity and politics in local school districts (and still have to wave the PhD/JD/MD/MBA card in front of their child’s teachers/administrators), and/or overextend themselves in housing purchases to get their child into a “good school system” (but still provide extra tutoring), while still being on the tenure track or medical residency/childbearing or caring for infants/toddlers, and taking care of ailing parents or disadvantaged relatives. This, however, does not diminish the plight of our urban brothers and sisters who fight for daily subsistence and the safety of their children (especially girls) when they send them to school. It just shows that “parental involvement” and the “culture of poverty”/”Acting Black/Acting White” theses need to be laid to rest- Dr. Sallie Suburb and her cousin Ms. Ciera Citydweller are still not rewarded for “acting White”….

Grace

From my Facebook post: I like this piece highlighting your research on segregated suburbia (copyrightin’ that right now:) ) and its impacts on educational access. No one understands the pervasiveness of the challenges that our friends who have endured years of de…bt and drama in graduate school to become professionals, (especially those who are in higher education) who also have to deal with inequity and politics in local school districts (and still have to wave the PhD/JD/MD/MBA card in front of their child’s teachers/administrators), and/or overextend themselves in housing purchases to get their child into a “good school system” (but still provide extra tutoring), while still being on the tenure track or medical residency/childbearing or caring for infants/toddlers, and taking care of ailing parents or disadvantaged relatives. This, however, does not diminish the plight of our urban brothers and sisters who fight for daily subsistence and the safety of their children (especially girls) when they send them to school. It just shows that “parental involvement” and the “culture of poverty”/”Acting Black/Acting White” theses need to be laid to rest- Dr. Sallie Suburb and her cousin Ms. Ciera Citydweller are still not rewarded for “acting White”….

http://twitter.com/aisha1908 kizzmm

I’m looking forward to reading your book!

http://twitter.com/aisha1908 kizzmm

I’m looking forward to reading your book!

http://www.hiphopknights.com Hip Hop

The book sounds very interesting. This topic does need further discussing as far as suburban opportunities.

http://www.hiphopknights.com Hip Hop

The book sounds very interesting. This topic does need further discussing as far as suburban opportunities.